Ecosocialism

EXCLUSIVE: Climate and Capitalism is proud to republish a long unavailable pamphlet that introduced the coming together of greens and reds in comic strip form, in 1980. The usually reliable Oxford English Dictionary says the first English-language appearance of the word “eco-socialism” was in the London Times in 1985, as a translation of the German ökosozialismus. The OED is wrong. Five years earlier, in 1980, the Socialist Environment and Resources Association, an affiliate of the British Labour Party, published a pamphlet titled Eco-Socialism in a Nutshell.

The future of the human species - if there is to be a future - must be radically green, red, black and female. If we take this seriously - a human future, that is, if we really care about whether there will be a human future - each one of us who claims to care has to be willing to be challenged, radically. How we think, feel, and act - it's all open to critique, and no one gets off easy, because everyone has failed. Individually and collectively, we have failed to create just societies or a sustainable human presence on the planet.

The Vancouver Ecosocialist Group has been formed by political and social justice activists of varying back- grounds in metropolitan Vancouver. We have come together because we believe the struggle to avert the deepening climate emergency is a fight for the survival of humanity and the Earth as we know it. We join in common struggle with all who seek to bring human economic pursuit into harmony with the other species with which we share the planet.

A.Context: The global resistance to a crisis-ridden neoliberalism
1. After 25 years, capitalism in its neoliberal version is experiencing a far-reaching breakdown that began with
the great recession of 2008. It is a triple crisis:

Good morning, sisters and brothers. It’s been just over six years since I found myself in a CEP crowd like this. Last time, in this very room, I was a delegate for Local 1129 at the Pulp and Paper Wage Caucus.

MORE THAN 6,000 environmental activists assembled in Pittsburgh for PowerShift 2013, sponsored by the Energy Action Coalition (EAC). This fourth PowerShift reflected the broader changes taking place in the environmental movement, with more emphasis placed on grassroots struggles, climate justice, racism and indigenous rights. This year's conference was the first to be held outside the Washington, D.C., area. The choice of Pittsburgh as the location signifies the deepening of locally based resistance to extreme energy extraction and growing criticism of fracking practices nationwide.

We are living in a time of dis-ease when the millions who are consistently working long hours pass by the millions of unemployed as ships in the night. The former, physically exhausted from overwork, share with the “chronically unemployed,” themselves psychically drained from months of fruitless search for work, the continuum of employment as the extremities – from none to too much. The most obvious solution – to share the work – never enters the popular discourse.

Green Left activist Sean Thompson says ecosocialists should leave the rightward-moving Green Party, and join the effort to build a new political party of the left in Britain. Sean Thompson is a founding member of Green Left, which describes itself as a an ecosocialist, anti-capitalist current within the Green Party of England and Wales. He published this open letter in his blog, Captain Jack, on October 13.

When C&C published Chris Williams’ article Strategy and tactics in the environmental movement last month, we said that we hoped it would “promote a much-needed discussion on how to build the fight against climate change in particular, and against capitalist ecocide as a whole.” That’s just what has happened. For weeks it has been the most frequently read article in Climate & Capitalism, and many other websites have linked to it. Now, we’re pleased to publish a reply to Chris Williams by Sasha Ross is a member of the Earth First!